Descartes's Method

Tarek Dika is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. In 2016-2021, he was an Assistant Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies and a Faculty Member in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also a Fellow in the Medieval Institute and a Concurrent Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy. In 2013-2016, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. Dika currently serves on the Comité de Lecture of Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale.

No question in Descartes's thought is more difficult than his method. The Rules for the Direction of the Mind, an unfinished treatise on method left unpublished in Descartes's lifetime has given rise to numerous inconsistent interpretations, nor is it easy to see how it is reflected in his later work. Tarek Dika's new book takes account of startling new manuscript discoveries about the Rules and offers a bold and unified new reading of the text and the project of method in Descartes's thought. It changes the way in which we see Descartes, and will open up new conversations about this canonical figure in the history of philosophy and science.

• Preface Abbreviations Introduction Descartes's Method: Universality without Uniformity Part I The Habitual Unity of Science: Aquinas to Descartes 1: The Habitual Unity of Individual Sciences: Aquinas to Suárez 2: The Habitual Unity of Science: Descartes Part II The Operations and Culture of the Method 3: The Operations of the Method: Intuition, Deduction, and Enumeration 4: The Culture of the Method: The Methodological Function of Mathesis universalis Part III The First Problem of the Method: The "Noblest Example" 5: Defining the Problem of the Limits of Knowledge in Rules 6: Descartes's Theory of the Faculties in Rules 7: Descartes's Theory of Simple Natures in Rules 8: The Origins of Cartesian Dualism in Rule 12 Part IV Applications: Perfectly and Imperfectly Understood Problems 9: Perfectly Understood Problems: Method and Mathematics in Rules 13-21 10: Imperfectly Understood Problems: Descartes's Deduction of the Law of Refraction and the Shape of the Anaclastic Lens in Rule 8 Part V Beyond Rules 11: Descartes's Method after Rules Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index